Two-year Journey under the Arrows of the Black Death

The penultimate part of the Riḥla by Ibn Baṭṭūṭa recounts his return journey to Morocco from the Middle East through North Africa—and another short tour in al-Andalus—between January 1348 and March 1350. At that time, in all these territories the plague pandemic known as the Black Death was raging and references to it punctuate this part of the work like a tired refrain. As numerous studies have shown borrowings and adaptations from other sources in the Riḥla, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa may not have made all the journeys he claims, but to date no one has questioned his journey through the Arabian area in those years. On the contrary, historians of the Black Death regard the Riḥla as an important document for the study of the scourge in the Middle East and North Africa. In this paper I aim to reconstruct the narrative of the pandemic in Ibn Baṭṭūṭa’s Riḥla by taking from the text the passages in which it is mentioned, in order to answer some questions: to which places do these passages refer? What information does the Riḥla give about the disease, its effects and people’s reaction? Does it correspond to that provided by the Arab chronicles? Does it fit with current microbiology, genetics and palaeogenetics research? Since the Riḥla is a narrative work, how does it describe the scourge? Does its description differ from that of the chroniclers? The concluding paragraph seeks an answer to two more questions: does the Riḥla report Ibn Baṭṭūṭa’s experience or might he and/or the editor of the work, Ibn Ǧuzayy, have taken information from other sources? And if Ibn Baṭṭūṭa did make this journey, thus probably being the only traveller who left an account of a “two-year journey under the arrows of the Black Death,” how could he return home unscathed?

Cytology Image Analysis Techniques Toward Automation

Cytology is a branch of pathology that deals with the microscopic examination of cells for diagnosis of carcinoma or inflammatory conditions. In the present work, the term cytology is used to indicate solid organ cytology. Automation in cytology started in the early 1950s with an aim to reduce manual efforts in the diagnosis of cancer. The influx of intelligent systems with high computational power and improved specimen collection techniques helped to achieve technological heights in the cytology automation process. In the present survey, we focus on image analysis techniques paving the way to automation in cytology. We take a short tour of 17 types of solid organ cytology to explore various segmentation and/or classification techniques that evolved during the past three decades to automate cytology image analysis. It is observed that most of the works are aligned toward three types of cytology: Cervical, Breast, and Respiratory tract cytology. These are discussed elaborately in the article. Commercial systems developed during the period are also summarized to comprehend the overall growth in respective domains. Finally, we discuss different state-of-the-art methods and related challenges to provide prolific and competent future research directions in bringing cytology-based commercial systems into the mainstream.

TOWARDS THE SUMMERS NIGHT: A MENTORING PROJECT FOR AUSTRALIAN COMPOSERS IDENTIFYING AS WOMEN

The Summers Night Project is an ongoing composer-mentoring programme established in 2018 by musicians Cat Hope and Gabriella Smart, with the support of the Perth-based new music organisation Tura New Music. The project aims to support and mentor emerging Australian female and gender minority composers to create new compositions for performance, with the aim of growing the gender diversity of composers in music programmes across Australia. Three composers were chosen from a national call for submissions, and works were performed by an ensemble consisting of members from the Decibel and Soundstream new music ensembles. Three new works were workshopped, recorded then performed on a short tour of Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne, Australia in July 2018. The project takes its name and inspiration from Australian feminist Anne Summers, author of the ground-breaking examination of women in Australia's history Damned Whores and God's Police (1975) and was inspired by her 2017 Women's Manifesto. This article examines the rationale for such a project, the processes and results of the project itself, and plans for its future.

A Professional Development Program Proposal for English Language Teachers

As there is a need to enable English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers to use technology in their classes, this study aims to propose an online in-service teacher training program aiming to prepare EFL teachers in Turkey to use Google Classroom and Piktochart. The planned training module is provided on a virtual online platform known as Second Life (SL). Included in the technology training, there would be an introductory session in which the instructor could ‘walk' the participants through the particulars of operating their virtual selves, as in their ‘avatars'. The course itself could commence with a short tour of the virtual sim being used for the training sessions. Immediately following the introduction, attending avatars and the instructor would congregate in the theatre area sim of the VSTE Island conference venue in-world at SL. The instructor, addressing the participants from the virtual stage, would present according to the agenda of showcasing the possible uses of the online software packages followed by step-by-step procedural instructions for the attendees to follow.

IAGA: a major role in understanding our magnetic planet

Throughout the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics's (IUGG's) centennial anniversary, the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy is holding a series of activities to underline the ground-breaking facts in the area of geomagnetism and aeronomy. Over 100 years, the history of these research fields is rich, and here we present a short tour through some of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy's (IAGA's) major achievements. Starting with the scientific landscape before IAGA, through its foundation until the present, we review the research and achievements considering its complexity and variability, from geodynamo up to the Sun and outer space. While a number of the achievements were accomplished with direct IAGA involvement, the others represent the most important benchmarks of geomagnetism and aeronomy studies. In summary, IAGA is an important and active association with a long and rich history and prospective future.